The number and variety of portable and mobile devices in use have exploded in the last decade. For example, the use of mobile phones, tablets, media players etc. has become ubiquitous. Such devices are generally powered by internal batteries and the typical use scenario often requires recharging of batteries or direct wired powering of the device from an external power supply.
Most present day systems require a wiring and/or explicit electrical contacts to be powered from an external power supply. However, this tends to be impractical and requires the user to physically insert connectors or otherwise establish a physical electrical contact. It also tends to be inconvenient to the user by introducing lengths of wire. Typically, power requirements also differ significantly, and currently most devices are provided with their own dedicated power supply resulting in a typical user having a large number of different power supplies with each being dedicated to a specific device. Although, the use of internal batteries may avoid the need for a wired connection to a power supply during use, this only provides a partial solution as the batteries will need recharging (or replacing which is expensive). The use of batteries may also add substantially to the weight and potentially cost and size of the devices.
In order to provide a significantly improved user experience, it has been proposed to use a wireless power supply wherein power is inductively transferred from a transmitter coil in a power transmitter device to a receiver coil in the individual devices.
Power transmission via magnetic induction is a well-known concept, mostly applied in transformers, having a tight coupling between primary transmitter coil and a secondary receiver coil. By separating the primary transmitter coil and the secondary receiver coil between two devices, wireless power transfer between these becomes possible based on the principle of a loosely coupled transformer.
Such an arrangement allows a wireless power transfer to the device without requiring any wires or physical electrical connections to be made. Indeed, it may simply allow a device to be placed adjacent to or on top of the transmitter coil in order to be recharged or powered externally. For example, power transmitter devices may be arranged with a horizontal surface on which a device can simply be placed in order to be powered.
Furthermore, such wireless power transfer arrangements may advantageously be designed such that the power transmitter device can be used with a range of power receiver devices. In particular, a wireless power transfer standard known as the Qi standard has been defined and is currently being developed further. This standard allows power transmitter devices that meet the Qi standard to be used with power receiver devices that also meet the Qi standard without these having to be from the same manufacturer or having to be dedicated to each other. The Qi standard further includes some functionality for allowing the operation to be adapted to the specific power receiver device (e.g. dependent on the specific power drain).
The Qi standard is developed by the Wireless Power Consortium and more information can e.g. be found on their website: http://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/index.html, where in particular the defined Standards documents can be found.
The Qi wireless power standard describes that a power transmitter must be able to provide a guaranteed power to the power receiver. The specific power level needed depends on the design of the power receiver. In order to specify the guaranteed power, a set of test power receivers and load conditions are defined which describe the guaranteed power level for each of the conditions.
Qi originally defined a wireless power transfer for low power devices considered to be devices having a power drain of less than 5 W. Systems that fall within the scope of this standard use inductive coupling between two planar coils to transfer power from the power transmitter to the power receiver. The distance between the two coils is typically 5 mm. It is possible to extend that range to at least 40 mm.
However, work is ongoing to increase the available power, and in particular the standard is being extended to mid-power devices being devices having a power drain of more than 5 W.
The Qi standard defines a variety of technical requirements, parameters and operating procedures that a compatible device must meet.
Communication
The Qi standard supports communication from the power receiver to the power transmitter thereby enabling the power receiver to provide information that may allow the power transmitter to adapt to the specific power receiver. In the current standard, a unidirectional communication link from the power receiver to the power transmitter has been defined and the approach is based on a philosophy of the power receiver being the controlling element. To prepare and control the power transfer between the power transmitter and the power receiver, the power receiver specifically communicates information to the power transmitter.
The unidirectional communication is achieved by the power receiver performing load modulation wherein a loading applied to the secondary receiver coil by the power receiver is varied to provide a modulation of the power signal. The resulting changes in the electrical characteristics (e.g. variations in the current draw) can be detected and decoded (demodulated) by the power transmitter.
Thus, at the physical layer, the communication channel from power receiver to the power transmitter uses the power signal as a data carrier. The power receiver modulates a load which is detected by a change in the amplitude and/or phase of the transmitter coil current or voltage. The data is formatted in bytes and packets.
More information can be found in chapter 6 of part 1 the Qi wireless power specification (version 1.0).
Although Qi uses a unidirectional communication link, it has been proposed to introduce communication from the power transmitter to the power receiver. However, such a bidirectional link is not trivial to include and is subject to a large number of difficulties and challenges. For example, the resulting system still needs to be backwards compatible and e.g. power transmitters and receivers that are not capable of bidirectional communication still need to be supported. Furthermore, the technical restrictions in terms of e.g. modulation options, power variations, transmission options etc are very restrictive as they need to fit in with the existing parameters. It is also important that cost and complexity is kept low, and e.g. it is desirable that the requirement for additional hardware is minimized, that detection is easy and reliable, etc. It is also important that the communication from the power transmitter to the power receiver does not impact, degrade or interfere with the communication from the power receiver to the power transmitter. Furthermore, an all-important requirement is that the communication link does not unacceptably degrade the power transfer ability of the system.
Accordingly, many challenges and difficulties are associated with enhancing a power transfer system such as Qi to include bidirectional communication.
System Control
In order to control the wireless power transfer system, the Qi standard specifies a number of phases or modes that the system may be in at different times of the operation. More details can be found in chapter 5 of part 1 the Qi wireless power specification (version 1.0).
The system may be in the following phases:
Selection Phase
This phase is the typical phase when the system is not used, i.e. when there is no coupling between a power transmitter and a power receiver (i.e. no power receiver is positioned close to the power transmitter).
In the selection phase, the power transmitter may be in a stand-by mode but will sense to detect a possible presence of an object. Similarly, the receiver will wait for the presence of a power signal.
Ping Phase
If the transmitter detects the possible presence of an object, e.g. due to a capacitance change, the system proceeds to the ping phase in which the power transmitter (at least intermittently) provides a power signal. This power signal is detected by the power receiver which proceeds to send an initial package to the power transmitter. Specifically, if a power receiver is present on the interface of the power transmitter, the power receiver communicates an initial signal strength packet to the power transmitter. The signal strength packet provides an indication of the degree of coupling between the power transmitter coil and the power receiver coil. The signal strength packet is detected by the power transmitter.
Identification & Configuration Phase
The power transmitter and power receiver then proceeds to the identification and configuration phase wherein the power receiver communicates at least an identifier and a required power. The information is communicated in multiple data packets by load modulation. The power transmitter maintains a constant power signal during the identification and configuration phase in order to allow the load modulation to be detected. Specifically, the power transmitter provides a power signal with constant amplitude, frequency and phase for this purpose (except from the change caused by load-modulation).
In preparation of the actual power transfer, the power receiver can apply the received signal to power up its electronics but it keeps its output load disconnected. The power receiver communicates packets to the power transmitter. These packets include mandatory messages, such as the identification and configuration packet, or may include some defined optional messages, such as an extended identification packet or power hold-off packet.
The power transmitter proceeds to configure the power signal in accordance with the information received from the power receiver.
Power Transfer Phase
The system then proceeds to the power transfer phase in which the power transmitter provides the required power signal and the power receiver connects the output load to supply it with the received power.
During this phase, the power receiver monitors the output load conditions, and specifically it measures the control error between the actual value and the desired value of a certain operating point. It communicates these control errors in control error messages to the power transmitter with a minimum rate of e.g. every 250 msec. This provides an indication of the continued presence of the power receiver to the power transmitter. In addition the control error messages are used to implement a closed loop power control where the power transmitter adapts the power signal to minimize the reported error. Specifically, if the actual value of the operating point equals the desired value, the power receiver communicates a control error with a value of zero resulting in no change in the power signal. In case the power receiver communicates a control error different from zero, the power transmitter will adjust the power signal accordingly.
The system allows for an efficient setup and operation of the power transfer. However, the approach is restrictive and may not allow the full desired flexibility and support for functions as required. For example if a power receiver tries to get more than 5 W power from a power transmitter the power transmitter may terminate power transfer resulting in a bad user experience. Therefore, it is desirably to further develop the Qi standard to provide enhanced functionality, flexibility and performance.
In particular the unidirectional communication may be restrictive. Indeed, this requires that the power transmitter must be able to comply with any request by the power receiver and thus further requires the power receiver to be limited to only request parameters that it knows can be met by all power transmitters. Such an approach complicates or prevents further development of functionality as it will result in a lack of backwards compatibility.
However, as previously mentioned, the introduction of bidirectional communication in power transfer systems such as Qi systems is complicated and subject to many restrictions and requirements in order to ensure both efficient power transfer, efficient operation and not least backwards compatibility.
The existing system provides only limited operational flexibility and customization options. In particular, the adaptation of operating parameters is restricted to a limited set of parameters. For example, the identification and configuration phase allows some operating parameters to be adapted to the specific power receiver. However, the number of parameters that can be adapted is limited. This may restrict the further development and enhancement of the Qi standard. For example, it may provide a hindrance to the introduction of the new (higher) power levels or new communication methods (such as for example new bidirectional communication techniques).
Further enhancing the standardized operation to support such increased flexibility is very difficult as it must not only provide an efficient operation resulting in reliable and effective operation but must also be backwards compatible. Specifically, the enhanced standards must still allow for equipment operating in accordance with the current standards (version 1.0 and 1.1 of the Qi Standard) to be supported.
This may provide a number of difficulties. For example, simply expanding the current configuration phase may not be suitable as it requires modified operations of existing equipment. Furthermore, it may not allow sufficient flexibility in determining further operating parameters. Another problem is that additional configuration requires time to be performed and such time may not be available in accordance with the current standards.
For example, extending the configuration packet transmitted from the power receiver to include newly defined bits indicating requests for specific values of specific operating parameters may in principle be possible as the current Qi Standards include an unused time interval between the configuration packet and the subsequent packet. However, a first extension of the Qi Standard could allow only for a single acknowledgement to be provided by the power transmitter. Accordingly, a single acknowledgement for multiple requests results in the response of the power transmitter becoming ambiguous. E.g. If the power receiver sends a packet comprising a requests a power level of 30 W and a request for a dedicated communication mode, the power transmitter could only positively acknowledge such request if it supports both the power level of 30 W and the dedicated communication mode. If the power transmitter supports only one of the two requests, it will have to reject the request.
It is furthermore highly desirable that the arrangement maintains low complexity and easy operation. In particular, it is desirable that communication from the power transmitter has low complexity, and indeed it is desirable in many situations that the communication from the power transmitter is restricted to single bit acknowledgements. This allows for a significantly facilitated implementation of the power transmitter to power receiver communication. For example, it may result in a very low data rate requirement e.g. allowing detection to be based on very slow power signal variations.
Thus, introducing a power transmitter to power receiver communication e.g. providing data defining the exact capability of the power transmitter to support specific operating parameters requires a more complex communication protocol from power transmitter to power receiver and may therefore not be practical for systems such as Qi systems. In addition if the communication channel from power transmitter only supports a low data rate, the communication of such increased information could take considerable time. Such a more complex and time demanding solution would not fit very well in extending a low cost low power solution such as Qi. Rather, a solution that corresponds to a simpler extension of e.g. the existing Qi specification v1.1 to e.g. enable 10-15 W applications would be preferable.
Hence, an improved power transfer system would be advantageous and in particular a system allowing increased flexibility, improved backwards compatibility, facilitated implementation and/or improved performance would be advantageous.